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COMSOL, COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS, COMSOL REACTION ENGINEERING LAB, AND FEMLAB ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF COMSOL AB. physicsworld.com Contents: May 2010 Quanta 3 Frontiers 4 Strange mass pinned down ● A visible quantum effect ● 3D object optically cloaked ● Controlling light on the nano-scale ● Pure water for disaster victims News & Analysis 7 GIPhotoStock/Science Photo Library LHC physics programme begins ● Report warns of NIF ignition delays ● Underwater solution for storing wind energy ● China boosts nuclear power ● Obama outlines NASA vision ● Europe launches ice mission ● UK announces first space agency ● Mystery over Iranian physicist ● US unveils nuclear-weapons plan ● Science in the Shine on – the laser in everyday life 16–20 UK general election ● A laser to break the vacuum Feedback 14 Itsy-bitsy units and comments from physicsworld.com The laser at 50 From ray-gun to Blu-ray 16 Sidney Perkowitz reveals how lasers in fiction have kept up with lasers in fact – or is it Patrick Landmann/Science Photo Library the other way round? And then there was light 23 The laser’s early years were full of scientific creativity, public-relations spin and Laser quest – bridging the green gap 43–45 intense rivalry, as Pauline Rigby describes Fusion’s bright new dawn 28 Mike Dunne explains how a much anticipated breakthrough in laser fusion could transform the search for abundant, carbon-free electricity Timeline: light fantastic 34 Highlighting a few of the applications, awards and “firsts” in the laser’s rich history The bubble legacy 36 Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics The telecoms crash of the early 2000s may have been a turbulent time for investors, but several key laser-based technologies from that period have been hugely successful. Jeff Hecht reports Fast forward – attosecond light pulses 47–51 Going for green 43 Mobile-phone companies want scientists to devise green laser diodes with powers of at least 50 mW. Andy Extance explains why, and reveals the competing physical On the cover phenomena – and companies – involved in this race The laser at 50 (Kate Gardner, Louise Mayor and Dens Milne) 15–56 Beyond ultrafast 47 Adrian Cavalieri tells us how to create laser pulses as short as 80 attoseconds, and highlights some of the ultrafast physical processes these pulses can reveal Where next for the laser? 53 Six experts review the past and predict the future of lasers in different areas of physics Physics World is published monthly as 12 issues per annual volume by IOP Publishing Ltd, Dirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS1 6BE, UK Careers 58 United States Postal Identification Statement Supporting laser science Harald Ellmann ● Once a physicist: Fausto Morales Physics World (ISSN 0953-8585) is published monthly by IOP Publishing Ltd, Dirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS1 6BE, UK. Annual subscription price is US $585. Air freight and mailing Recruitment 62 in the USA by Publications Expediting, Inc., 200 Meacham Ave, Elmont NY 11003. Periodicals postage at Jamaica NY 11431. US Postmaster: send address changes to Physics World, American Institute of Physics, Suite 1NO1, Lateral Thoughts 68 2 Huntington Quadrangle, Melville, NY 11747-4502 A villain’s life in lasers Kate Oliver 1 Physics World May 2010 physicsworld.com Quanta For the record Seen and heard The possibility for discovery is off the chart Students on the course can look forward to demonstrations from the chefs on, for Nobel laureate Sam Ting quoted in the Observer example, how to make bubbles of air Ting’s $300m Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, surrounded by a thin sheet of fluid, which which will attempt to discover the origin of high- are the inspiration for Adrià’s speciality energy cosmic rays, will finally get a trip to the foams of beetroot, mushroom and International Space Station towards the end of the Transport for London 2005 expresso. Whether Harvard students will year on one of the final Space Shuttle launches. now be rustling up Adrià’s signature dishes – intertwined carrot chips with lemon It is very difficult; it is really difficult verbena, ginger and liquorice followed by melon caviar – remains to be seen. NASA boss Charles Bolden talking to the BBC Bolden was close to tears during an interview when The jokes are on CERN Lambs for the chop asked to reflect on his time as an astronaut and to With the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) If you read the Sun, then you might be describe what it means to him to witness the end having just recorded it first high-energy forgiven for thinking that the laser is not a of the shuttle programme, which has run for more collisions, the CERN particle-physics lab human invention. According to a report in than 30 years. near Geneva was, perhaps not surprisingly, the paper last month, some UK farmers the main focus of last month’s physics- near Shrewsbury believe that advanced It is extraordinary that this action has based April fool gags. The Independent, alien civilizations have been using lasers to cost £200 000 to establish the rather lamely, claimed that a successor to attack their sheep. Former steelworker the LHC – dubbed LHC II – was earmarked Phil Hoyle, who has spent a decade meaning of a few words to go in the 23 km circumference Circle line investigating unexplained livestock deaths Science writer and physicist Simon Singh quoted of the London Underground. Meanwhile, in the area, says the attacks are being in the Guardian technology website CNET UK announced carried out by two orange-coloured spheres Singh penned a comment piece for the Guardian in that a man had been arrested at the LHC that zap the sheep and remove their brains April 2008 criticizing the British Chiropractic after having travelled back in time to try and eyes. “The animals are being clinically Association (BCA) for claiming its members could and prevent the collider from starting up and surgically sampled by a highly use spinal manipulation to treat children with ear and destroying the world. Keen not to miss advanced technology,” an alarmed Hoyle infections, asthma and other ailments. The BCA out, a CERN press release noted the LHC told the newspaper. Having interviewed then sued him for libel denying these criticisms. had made its first discovery since it collided farmers, he notes that “all but one” had Last month Singh won the right to use “fair protons at 3.5TeV per beam on 30 March. experienced the disappearance or strange comment” in his defence. The release claimed that two researchers death of one of their animals. Hoyle offers had found a paleoparticle, nicknamed no explanation for the aliens’ prowess with It is a very low bar – there is basically “neutrinosaurus” because of its lasers but says that the devices must be built me and Patrick Moore “prehistoric origins”. Yawn. Possibly the “by technology and intelligence that’s not best April fool was by physicist from here”. The mystery continues. Particle physicist and broadcaster Brian Cox Adam Falkowski from Rutgers University, quoted in the Daily Mail who announced on his blog Resonaances Buzz off ABC Cox, who came 70th in People magazine’s that the “unmistakable” tracks of a He may have been the 100 sexiest men of the year, comes over all supersymmetric particle had been found second man to step on the modest when praised for being “good-looking…for by the ATLAS detector at CERN. At least Moon, but Buzz Aldrin a scientist”. one Nature reporter fell for the gag and probably spent more time double-checked with CERN if the on the lunar surface than I have never forgiven them – my discovery was true. Now that is funny. he did on the US TV show German is still pitiful Dancing with the Stars. Physics à la carte The 80-year-old former astronaut became Queen guitarist Brian May quoted in Eureka The culinary limit of most university the second celebrity to be voted off the May, who finally completed his PhD in physics students is probably beans on toast, show last month and recorded the week’s astrophysics in 2007, still regrets being forced to with, if they are feeling especially creative, lowest score from the judging panel. study German at school on the grounds that it a splash of chilli sauce on top. But students Despite training for five hours a day before would help him to understand physics papers by at Harvard University might be rustling up his stage debut, Aldrin gained only German researchers. something much more exciting in the 13 points out of 30 for his waltz, which he future. This autumn the renowned chef performed with dance partner Ashly Costa. They have been a breath of fresh air Ferran Adrià, from the world famous, However, Aldrin’s appearance had an three-Michelin-starred restaurant El Bulli ulterior motive – to promote the US space Environmentalist James Lovelock quoted in in northern Spain, will begin teaching programme and its future direction. The Times culinary physics at the university. Over a “[I did] the best I could to spread interest Lovelock says that climate sceptics have kept 13-week term, Adrià will team up with among Americans and the rest of the everyone from regarding the science of climate fellow Spanish chef José Andrés to help world about the achievements of success change as a religion.